New Led Zeppelin on Scorpio

Scorpio continue their production of high quality Led Zeppelin titles with The Atrocity Exhibition (LZ-08026). This is a four disc set with the July 6th, 1973 Chicago soundboard and the mysterious 1973 rehearsal tape that has been attributed to Chicago but probably isn’t.

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26 comments

Thanks for the sites Brianvy. interesting stuff…but it pretty must verified what I was saying that most people can’t hear the difference btween a lossless source and an MP3 at a reasonable bit rate. Also to consider, when you are born your hearing theoretically goes up to 20Khz but most adults with normal hearing (not damaged by loud concerts with out ear plugs)can only hear frequencies up to about 15-16khz which according to the websites is where MP3’s start to cutoff the upper frequencies..So it makes sense the MP3 codec would eliminate frequencies above 15-16 kHZ as most of us can’t hear them anyway. The people who created the MP3 codec were pretty smart …….

I don’t think this discussion is rather silly, but rather …intriguing… If a silver pressed title is shown to be unnecessarily MP3-sourced, I personally don’t care who the manufacturer is– it’s lame. AGAIN and again, I’d love hear some specific titles that are claimed to be MP3-sourced. I can only assume the titles sourced from Wolfgang’s Vault are and I’ve heard some rumors about certain Scorpio tracks, but I have no proof.

I do think this discussion is rather silly, especially since there has not been any proof offered. Honestly their recent releases sound fine to me so I don’t really care. And please remember we are discussing the Scorpio label.

You miss the point Lord Bud..Even if it is an MP3, which has yet to be confirmed, if Scorpio masters it and if collectors feel it sounds better than a lossless source why would you care if it is an MP3?? It’s all about the sound quality yes???…In any case if you read the RO thread the proof is questionable at best. I think people should be careful about questioning Scorpio’s integrity without positive proof. Just look at how some here have made up there minds that Scorpio is guilty without proof. This label has put out some nice sounding titles so please make sure of the facts before throwing them under the bus…….

On principle alone, a label releasing a pressed silver CD sourced from MP3s no matter the bitrate is lame. This so-called Scorpio label has little or nothing to do with the original protection gap era Scorpio label — other than the name — which is something they should think about upholding. There’s no excuse for this. And if this is just a rumor started by someone with something against bootleggers…well then.

Robert makes a good point. This isn’t the best show and I’m not planning on getting a copy of it anyway. No review of The Atrocity Exhibition will appear here. The July 12th Detroit show is excellent and should be released…

Moving on from the MP3 debate I have this show on ‘Grandiloquence’ released on the old Antrabata Ref Master label back in the dim and distant past. To be honest the performance isn’t that great and I’m suprised Scorpio have bothered releasing it. The best of all performamces from the 2nd leg of the US 73 tour was, IMHO, Detroit on the 12th. I have this as well on the Antrabata label, but sound quality is a bit distant and muddy. I’d much prefer an upgrade to this show.

Understand astroid but I will let my ears help me make the decision and not a bias against MP3 sources. If the Scorpio MP3 sourced releases sound better than other lossless releases I will buy them even if from MP3 sources. Think of it as the difference between an VG atmospheric audience source or a perfect but dry sound lifeless board. If the audience source has more life would you buy the SB just because it is a SB? All I am saying is let your ears make the decision not your prejudice against the source……..

Nice summary astroidbelt! Let’s have info on unnecessarily MP3-sourced silver pressed titles and who’s making them; consumers can then make their own choices. I, for one, likely won’t buy them. Storm the castle indeed!… ha ha. And I agree that these labels are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

I agree that MP3 sourced stuff is fine when that is the only source available. There are a bunch of old lp boots which only exist that way, so I have no problem picking up titles like that which have been transferred to cd. That’s a bonus for collectors who can’t afford the vinyl or when the original source is still under lock and key.

But that’s not the same as what is going on here. Scorpio isn’t putting out stuff that is only available in MP3. They are putting out stuff by Dylan, Hendrix, and Zep which is widely available in lossless. So, there is no reason for them to be putting stuff out this way.

Collectors are always left with the option to buy or not buy these things when they come out. But I think that Scorpio is shooting themselves in the foot on this.

I am not defending Scorprio’s practice if the allegations are true but I work for a large audio company and have taken several classes on acoustics and in all honesty most people can’t hear the difference between an MP3 ripped at a bit rate of 192kbits/s or higher or a lossless source anyway and I would challenge anyone here to be able to tell the difference between an original cd and an MP3 ripped at 320kbits/sec even in side by side comparisons. There have been several excellent releases from Wolfgangs vault free MP3 streams on silver disc which I have purchased as this is the only source for the shows and they sound amazing. One of my favorite shows is a complete 1977 Thin Lizzy show from the Philly Tower Theater which was captured from the WV MP3 streaming. Incredible sound. My point is you should not get hung up on a source being MP3 since if it is a good source ripped at a high bit rate it will sound great so who cares? MP3 source or not if it is a great sounding show on silver disc I would not hestitate to buy it..Use your ears to make the decision……

I’d be interested to know what silver discs listed on this site are mp3 sourced… I’m a serious collector and probably wouldn’t spend good $ on a silver pressing made from mp3’s unless it was ONLY available in that (lossy) format.

Scorpio 2 last Bob Dylan releases (“New Jersey 1988″ and “Denver 1988″) also comes as MP3s. Scorpio seems to do this purpose – or their sources send them MP3s instead of WAV files. In either case; it’s a loss for us and the music.

Well, I admit, it is funny to make a big deal out of any of this. If the discs sound okay to the human ear, then I guess they’re still winners.

But, I am asking you seriously, if this site, just like Bootledz, refuses to acknowledge cd-rs bootlegs as real releases, yet is perfectly fine with shows made from mp3s, doesn’t that seem a little contradictory? Where does the pecking order end? Why not count the fan remasters then, many of which come with artwork that one can print out at home?

It just seems to me that the collecting era of silver disc bootlegs is coming to a very rapid end if it’s now okay for labels to start releasing mp3s instead of genuine audio. Compact discs are already obsolete as it is.

This has been discussed. I believe several of these labels have released silvers that originated from mp3’s. They take the time to find them, download, EQ’em, clean ’em up, find some pics from the show itself,or are period correct, make nice presentation professionally pressed on a quality disc, and sell them to you. In some cases, get the songs in the right order that they were played in. You can’t walk down to your local record store, if there are any left and buy Zeppelin playing in Chicago in ’73. You also don’t have to buy them.

Yeah, I read on RO that Scorpio bootlegs are made from mp3s. So, gsparaco, how can you say “Whatever”?

I thought the whole point of buying pressed silvers was to have the packaging, have shows that were never available on silvers before, but also to have the audio preserved and to have a collector’s item. But the sound is a huge part. Even if the artwork sucks, I’d still buy the disc if it was better sounding. That’s why one bootleg gets rated higher than another, right?Otherwise, I’d still be holding on to my Silver Rarities version of Listen to this Eddie.

If these Scorpio bootlegs really are all made from mp3’s, doesn’t that defeat the point of collecting them? Doesn’t that take the “must be on pressed silvers” mantra just a little too far?